1060s

1060s: events by year

Contents: 1060 1061 1062 1063 1064 1065 1066 1067 1068 1069

1060

• May – The Norman leader Robert Guiscard conquers Taranto.
• October – The Byzantine army defeats the Normans and enters Taranto.
• The compilation of the New Book of Tang is completed under a team of scholars led by Ouyang Xiu.
• Chinese poet, calligrapher, and official Cai Xiang publishes his Cha Lu (Record of Tea).
• Spanish Jew Benjamin of Tudela reports that Constantinople has merchant communities from Babylon, Canaan, Egypt, Hungary, Persia, Russia, Sennar, and Spain as well as 2,000 Jews (approximate date).
• Philip I of France begins his reign.
• Upon the death of Emund the Old, he is succeeded by his son-in-law Stenkil as King of Sweden.

1061

By place

Europe

• January – Robert de Grantmesnil, his nephew Berengar, half-sister Judith (future wife of Roger I of Sicily), and eleven monks of Saint-Evroul-sur-Ouche are banished from Normandy and head to the Mezzogiorno.
• October 1 – Pope Alexander II succeeds Pope Nicholas II as the 156th pope.
• The Normans conquer Messina in Sicily.
• Erection of the Speyer Cathedral in Speyer, Germany, begins.
• Vratislav II becomes duke of Bohemia.
• Most of West Frisia (later known as Holland) is conquered by imperial German armies and given to the Bishop of Utrecht.
• Estonians destroy the castle of Yuryev in Tartu and carry out raids in the Pskov region in Russia.

Africa

• Yusuf ben Tashfin succeeds to the throne of Morocco, following the Almoravid conquest.

1062

By place

Africa

• Marrakech is founded by the Almoravid dynasty.
• The Almoravids overrun Morocco and establish a kingdom stretching from Spain to Senegal.
• The Banu Khurasan, vassal of the Hammadid dynasty, begin to rule the north of Ifriqiya.^[1]

Europe

• Affligem Abbey, of the Order of St. Benedict, is founded in Affligem, Belgium.

1063

By area

Europe

• Successful Pisan naval assault upon Muslim-ruled Palermo led by Giovanni Orlandi to support the ambitions of Roger of Hauteville.^[2]
• Sancho I becomes ruler of Aragon.
• The River Thames is frozen for 14 weeks.

By topic

Architecture

• The Pizhi Pagoda of Lingyan Temple, Shandong, China is completed, standing at a height of 54 m (177 ft) tall.
• The construction of present building of St Mark's Basilica is begun.

Religion

• Anselm, later to become Archbishop of Canterbury, becomes prior at the Abbey of Bec.
• The Bishopric of Olomouc is founded.

1064

By area

Americas

• Sunset Crater Volcano (present-day Arizona) first erupts.

Asia

• The Seljuk Turks storm Anatolia, taking Caesarea and Ani, marking the beginning of Turkish incursions into Anatolia.

Europe

• June 9 – Coimbra is taken by King Ferdinand of Castile.
• Harold II marries Edith, daughter of Ælfgār, Earl of Mercia, and widow of Welsh ruler Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.
• Harold II is shipwrecked at Ponthieu, Normandy and taken captive by Count Guy.
• Construction of the Duomo at Pisa in Tuscany begins.

1065

• December 28 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
• The kingdoms of Galicia and Portugal become independent under the rule of Garcia.
• Sima Guang, high chancellor of the Chinese Song Dynasty, heads a team of scholars in initiating the compilation of an enormous written universal history of China, known as the Zizhi Tongjian.

1066

By area

Africa

• The first black Africans in modern-day Gambia convert to Islam.

Asia

• Shen Kuo receives a post in the capital China.

Europe

• The Genoese, jealous of the recent successes of their former allies, launch a naval assault on Pisa.^[3]
• December 30 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.
• Hedeby is destroyed by a Slavic army and permanently abandoned.
• Upon the death of king Stenkil of Sweden, his son Eric Stenkilsson and his rival Eric the Pagan battle for power in Sweden, both claiming the throne, until the next year.

Conquest of England

• January 4 – Edward the Confessor dies. The Witan proclaims Harold Godwinson King.
• January 5 – Harold II is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.
• March 20 – Halley's Comet reaches perihelion. Its appearance is subsequently recorded in the Bayeux Tapestry.
• September 20 – Battle of Fulford: King Harald III of Norway (Harald Hardrada) defeats the northern English earls Edwin and Morcar.
• September 25 – Battle of Stamford Bridge: King Harold II of England defeats the Vikings under Harald Hardrada.
• September 28 – Duke William of Normandy, lands in England at Pevensey.
• October 14 – Battle of Hastings, fought between King Harold II of England and Duke William of Normandy: Harold is killed and William is victorious. In England this is the traditional end of the Dark Ages and the start of the Middle Ages.
• December 25 – Duke William of Normandy, is crowned King William I of England.
• Magnus II is crowned King of Norway.

By topic

• Sima Guang completes the compilation of a large dictionary, an important work of Chinese lexicography.

1067

• On the death of her husband Constantine X, Eudocia Macrembolitissa becomes regent of the Byzantine Empire.
• The Seljuk Turks take Caesarea in Cappadocia.
• Construction begins on the Tower of London.
• Olav III and Magnus II become joint Kings of Norway.
• The two pretenders to the Swedish throne, Eric Stenkilsson and Eric the Pagan, are both killed during the struggle for power in Sweden. Halsten, son of king Stenkil, who died the year before, becomes the new king of the country.
• The Trencavel family takes over in Carcassonne.
• The Wartburg castle, according to legend, is built in Thuringia.
• Winchester Castle is built.
• Minsk and Orsha are first mentioned in the chronicles.
• Shenzong of Song starts to rule.
• Namgyeong is split from Yangju, Goryeo.
• The poet Wang Anshi campaigns against corruption in China.

1068

• January 1 – Eudocia Macrembolitissa marries the general Romanus Diogenes, who becomes Byzantine Emperor.
• Emperor Go-Sanjō ascends to the throne of Japan.
• William the Conqueror takes Exeter after a brief siege.

1069

• Harrying of the North: King William of England (William the Conqueror) reacts to rebellions made by his people against him. He rides through the north of England with his army and burns houses, crops, cattle and land from York to Durham, which results in the deaths of over 100,000 people, mainly from starvation and winter cold.
• William the Conqueror founds the Norman Selby Abbey.
• Abbad III al-Mu'tamid succeeds his father on the throne of Sevilla.
• Shenzong appoints Wang Anshi as his chief counsellor.
• Wang Anshi, chancellor of the Chinese Song Dynasty, implements the New Policies, which include financial reforms, raising the salaries of officials to reduce corruption, institution of the baojia system, etc.
• Magnus II of Norway dies and Olav III becomes sole King of Norway.
• The Seljuk Turks fail to capture Iconium, following a Byzantine counter-attack launched from Syria.

Significant people

• William the Conqueror
• Harold Godwinson
• Harald Hardrada
• Edward the Confessor
• Edgar the Atheling
• Tostig Godwinson

Births

Deaths

References